Islamic view of miracles#Scientific miracles

A systematic definition of miracles performed by apostles can be found in the work of the Muslim scholar al-Īd̲j̲ī Mawāḳif, historian A.J. Wensinck states. The main purpose of miracle is to prove the sincerity of the apostle and has to satisfy the following conditions:

1. It must be performed by God
2. "It must be contrary to the usual course of things"
3. It should be impossible to contradict it
4. "It must happen at the hands of him who claims to be an apostle
5. "It must be in conformity with his announcement of it, and the miracle itself must not be a disavowal of his claim"
6. "It must follow on his claim"

{{Quran}}

Belief in that which is transmitted by {{transliteration|ar|mutawatir}} is obligatory to believe in for Sunni Muslims. Rejection of that which is {{transliteration|ar|mutawatir}} is cause for leaving Islam according to consensus of Sunni scholars. The Qur'an is transmitted by {{transliteration|ar|mutawatir}} and therefore every verse must be believed in, including every reference to a miracle of any prophet. Additionally, there are several hadith reports which convey miracles of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which are also transmitted by {{transliteration|ar|mutawatir}}. Such hadiths and miracles must also be fully believed in for one to be a Muslim. However, rejecting an {{transliteration|ar|ahad}}, or solitary, narration is only sinful ({{transliteration|ar|fisq}}) and not disbelief.{{cite web |title=Establishing Matters of Aqidah With Hadith Ahad |url=https://seekersguidance.org/answers/islamic-belief/establishing-matters-of-aqidah-with-hadith-ahad/ |website=SeekersGuidance |access-date=6 September 2020 |date=27 May 2009}}{{cite book |last1=Ibn 'Abd al-Barr |first1=Yusuf |title=Al-Tamhîd limâ fîl-Muwatta' min al-Ma'ânî wal-Asânîd |isbn=978-977-771-047-3 |pages=Volume 1, page 142, and Volume 4, page 266}}{{cite book |last1=al-Ghazali |first1=Abu Hamid |title=Faysal al-tafriqah bayna al-Islam wa-al-zandaqah. |year=1961 |publisher='Īsá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī |page=144 |oclc=977737394 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/977737394 |language=ar}}{{cite web |title=Denying the Mutawaatir Hadeeth - Islamweb - Fatwas |url=https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/97262/denying-the-mutawaatir-hadeeth |website=www.islamweb.net |access-date=6 September 2020}}

Miracles are split up into {{transliteration|ar|Karamat}} and {{transliteration|ar|Mu'jizat}}; the former are given by God to saints and the latter are given by God exclusively to prophets. In {{transliteration|ar|Al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah}}, upon which there is consensus, there are two points on this: "We do not prefer any of the saints of this nation over any of the prophets, upon them be peace. We say that a single prophet is better than all the saints put together. We have faith in what has come of their miracles ({{transliteration|ar|karamat}}) and what has been authenticated in their narrations from trustworthy narrators."{{cite web |title=Al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah in English and Arabic {{!}} Faith in Allah |url=https://abuaminaelias.com/aqeedah-tahawiyyah/ |access-date=6 September 2020 |date=18 December 2010}}

Taftāzāni lists in his Sharh al-'Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya the following lists the following miracles as performed by saints and prophets:Austin P. Evans A commentary on the Creed of Islam Translated by Earl Edgar Elder Columbia University Press, New York {{ISBN|0-8369-9259-8}} p. 138-139

• Contradicting the customary way of things, such as covering a great distance in a short time.
• Appearance of food and drink and clothing at the time of need, as performed by Zacharias
• Walking on water, related to many saints
• Walking in the air, related to Ja'far ibn Abi Talib
• Inanimate solid objects and animals speaking
• Warding off of approaching calamity and protection from enemies

In order to defend the possibility of miracles and God's omnipotence against the encroachment of the independent secondary causes, medieval Muslim theologians rejected the idea of cause and effect in essence, but accepted it as something that facilitates humankind's investigation and comprehension of natural processes. They argued that the nature was composed of uniform atoms that were "re-created" at every instant by God. Thus if the soil was to fall, God would have to create and re-create the accident of heaviness for as long as the soil was to fall. For Muslim theologians, the laws of nature were only the customary sequence of apparent causes: customs of God.Robert G. Mourison, The Portrayal of Nature in a Medieval Qur'an Commentary, Studia Islamica, 2002

According to Denis Gril, Islam teaches that miracles – i.e. a supernatural interventions in the life of human beings – are present in the Quran "in a threefold sense: in sacred history, in connection with Muhammad himself and in relation to revelation." By contrast, Ali Dashti ({{abbr|d.|died}} 1982) writes that "there has been much debate{{nbsp}}[...] on the question whether the Qur'an is miraculous in respect of its eloquence or of its subject-matter, or of both. In general the Muslim scholars consider it to be miraculous in both respects."Dashti, 23 Years, 1994: p.40

In the Qur'an, the term {{transliteration|ar|ayah}} is used to refer to miracles—cosmic phenomena for example are {{transliteration|ar|ayat takwiniyyah}}—particularly miracles of creation.{{cite web |last1=Mohammed |first1=Khaleel |title=Muhammad Al-Ghazali's View on Abrogation in the Qur'an |url=http://www.forpeoplewhothink.org/Topics/Abrogation_in_the_Quran.html |website=forpeoplewhothink.org |access-date=27 August 2018}} But it is also used to mean "evidence," "sign", "Quranic verse", (religious obligations are {{transliteration|ar|ayat taklifiyyah}}). In Islam in general ayah is often used to a mean Quranic verse, but there is overlap in meaning: {{transliteration|ar|ayat}}/verses are believed to be the divine speech in human language presented by Muhammad as his chief miracle, and miracles are a "sign" ({{transliteration|ar|ayah}}) of God and of Muhammad's prophethood.

A.J. Wensinck, Muʿd̲j̲iza, Encyclopedia of Islam

Verses of the Qur'an stating that the Qu'ran itself is a miracle – i.e. so amazing it could not have been a natural occurrence – include:

• Q11:13[https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/11/13/ Q11:13], 50+ translations, islamawakened.com "Will they say, he hath forged the Quran? Answer, bring therefore ten chapters like unto it, forged by yourselves; and call on whomsoever ye may to assist you, except God, if ye speak truth",Sale translation was revealed in response to polytheists accusation that Muhammad's revelation was invented by Muhammad or came from other men.Dashti, 23 Years, 1994: p.40
• Q17:88[https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/17/88/ Q17:88], islamawakened.com "Say: 'If the mankind and the jinns were together to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they helped one another.'" was issued in reply to an accusation found in 8:31:[https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/8/31/ Q8:31], islamawakened.com "We have already heard (such things). If we wished, we could say (things) like this. These are only fables of the ancients"

The Qur'an does not mention any miracle for Adam (Adem) who though an Islamic prophet was not supposed to convince anybody of God's message. Sura (verse) 11 (Hūd) and 23 (Al-Mu’minoon){{cite quran|11|40|s=ns|b=n}}, {{cite quran|23|27|s=ns|b=n}} mention miracles of Noah (Nuh), "The oven (tannur) out of which the water burst and announced the flood". Hud, prophet for the ancient tribe of ʿĀd and the first of five Arabian prophets of the Qur'an, does not have any particular miracle (thus according to historian Denis Gril prefiguring Muhammad). (See Q.{{Cite quran|7|69|s=ns|b=n}} for his response when he was rebuked for not producing a miracle.)

{{main|Quran code}}

The term Quran code (also known as Code 19) refers to the claim that the Quranic text contains a hidden mathematically complex code. Advocates think that the code represents a mathematical proof of the divine authorship of the Quran and they also think that it can be used to identify orthographic errors within the Quranic text. Proponents of the Quran code claim that the Quran code is based on statistical procedures.

In the United States, at the end of the 20th century, the Egyptian Quranist Muslim biochemist Rashad Khalifa developed a theological doctrine that influenced Quranists in many other countries. With the help of computers, he carried out a numerical analysis of the Quran, which according to him clearly proved that it is of divine origin.Musa: The Qur’anists. 2010, S. 13. The number 19, which is mentioned in chapter 74 of the Quran as being "one of the greatest miracles" played the fundamental role,Q 74:30: „Über ihr sind neunzehn.“ Übersetzung von Hartmut Bobzin: Der Koran. 2017. which according to Khalifa can be found everywhere in the structure of the Quran, and the fact that a Quranist discovered such a big miracle proved the Quranist approach.Khan: Nineteen. 2010, S. 112. Khalifa also cited Quran's chapter 74, verse 30: "Over it is nineteen".{{Cite book|last=Bangert|first=Kurt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zCYWDAAAQBAJ|title=Muhammad: Eine historisch-kritische Studie zur Entstehung des Islams und seines Propheten|date=2016-04-25|publisher=Springer-Verlag|isbn=978-3-658-12956-9|pages=114–116|language=de}}{{Cite book|last=Momen|first=Moojan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wv_WAAAAMAAJ|title=The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach|date=1999|publisher=Oneworld|isbn=978-1-85168-161-7|pages=561|language=en}} The movement popularized the phrase: "The Quran, the whole Quran, and nothing but the Quran."{{cite journal|last=Musa|first=Aisha Y.|date=2010|title=The Qur'anists|journal=Religion Compass|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|volume=4|issue=1|pages=12–21|doi=10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00189.x}} Some objected to these beliefs and, in 1990, Khalifa was assassinated by someone associated with the Sunni group Jamaat ul-Fuqra.[https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/historic-house/Content?oid=1830625 Historic House: The story behind that building with the words 'Happiness Is Submission to God'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709055621/https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/historic-house/Content?oid=1830625|date=2020-07-09}}, Tucsonweekly.com, Accessed July 7, 2020

Starting the 1970s and 1980s, a genre of popular literature known as {{transliteration|ar|ijaz}}, and often called "scientific miracles in the Quran", argued that the Quran abounds with "scientific facts" centuries before their discovery by science and thus demonstrating that the Quran must be of divine origin.{{cite book |last1=La'li |first1=Mahdi |title=A Comprehensive Exploration of the Scientific Miracles in Holy Quran |date=2007 |publisher=Trafford Publishing |isbn=978-1-4120-1443-4 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-BqDwAAQBAJ&q=scientific+miracles+in+the+Quran |access-date=18 April 2019}}

Some hold that certain verses of the Qur'an contain scientific theories that have been discovered only in modern times, confirming Qur'an's miraculousness.{{Cite journal |last1=Talebpour |first1=Alireza |last2=Rohani Mashhadi |first2=Farzaneh |last3=Moradi |first3=Mostafa |date=2022 |title=Introducing an Original Method in Evaluating the Scientific Miracle of the Qur'an |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.37264/jiqs.v1i1.1 |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary Qur'anic Studies |volume=1 |issue=1 |doi=10.37264/jiqs.v1i1.1}}{{unreliable source|date=June 2025}}

Among these miracles found in the Quran are "everything, from relativity, quantum mechanics, Big Bang theory, black holes and pulsars, genetics, embryology, modern geology, thermodynamics, even the laser and hydrogen fuel cells". "Widespread and well-funded"Cook, The Koran, 2000: p.29 with "millions" from Saudi Arabia, the literature can be found in Muslim bookstores and on websites and television programs of Islamic preachers.{{cite journal |last1=Sardar |first1=Ziauddin |title=Weird science |journal=New Statesman |date=21 August 2008 |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/08/quran-muslim-scientific |access-date=11 April 2019}} According to author Ziauddin Sardar, the movement has created a "global craze in Muslim societies".

However, the {{transliteration|ar|ijaz}} movement has been criticized by scholars.{{cite journal |last1=Ansari |first1=Zafar Ishaq |title=Scientific Exegesis of the Qur'an / {{rlo}}التفسير العلمي للقرآن{{popdf}} |journal=Journal of Qur'anic Studies |date=2001 |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=92 |doi=10.3366/jqs.2001.3.1.91 |jstor=25728019 }}{{cite web |last1=Talib |first1=Ali |title=Deconstructing the "Scientific Miracles in the Quran" Argument |url=https://traversingtradition.com/2018/04/09/deconstructing-the-scientific-miracles-in-the-quran-argument/ |website=Transversing Tradition |access-date=16 April 2019 |date=9 April 2018}}{{cite journal |last1=Guessoum |first1=Nidhal |title=ThE QUR'AN, SCIENCE, AND THE (RELATED)CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM DISCOURSE |journal=Zygon |date=June 2008 |volume=43 |issue=2 |page=411+ |url=https://www.academia.edu/1447032 |access-date=15 April 2019 |issn=0591-2385|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9744.2008.00925.x |doi-access=free }} Ziauddin Sardar argues that it requires "considerable mental gymnastics and distortions to find scientific facts or theories in these verses."

According to Zafar Ishaq Ansari, the Quran is the source of guidance in right faith ({{transliteration|ar|iman}}) and righteous action ({{transliteration|ar|alladhina amanu wa amilu l-salihat}}), but the idea that it contained "all knowledge, including scientific" knowledge has not been a mainstream view among Muslim scholarship.

The Quran describes Muhammad as {{transliteration|ar|ummi}} (Q7:157),[https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/7/157/ Q7:157], islamawakened.com which is traditionally interpreted as "unlettered,"{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-oIAAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA202|title=Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Essays in Honour of Hermann Landolt|page=202|publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd|isbn=978-0-85771-622-4|date=2005-09-23}}Dashti, 23 Years, 1994: p. 44 and the ability of such a person to produce the Quran is taken as miraculous and as a sign of the genuineness of his prophethood. For example, according to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, if Muhammad had mastered writing and reading he possibly would have been suspected of having studied the books of the ancestors. Some scholars such as Watt prefer the second meaning.{{cite book|last=Richard Bell (Revised and Enlarged by W. Montgomery Watt)|title=Bell's introduction to the Qur'an|year=1970|publisher=Univ. Press|isbn=978-0-85224-171-4|pages=31–51}}

{{cite journal|last=Günther|first=Sebastian|title=Muhammad, the Illiterate Prophet: An Islamic Creed in the Quran and Quranic Exegesis|journal=Journal of Quranic Studies|year=2002|volume=4|issue=1|pages=1–26|doi=10.3366/jqs.2002.4.1.1}}

However, some scholars{{Who|date=February 2021}} argue that the word did not mean "illiterate" but non-Jewish and non-Christian Arabs, pagan Arabs.{{Clarify|reason=Wording is incoherent.|date=February 2021}}

The theory of the scientific miracle of the Qur'an claims that the Qur'an has a miracle in expressing some scientific material (some modern scientific discoveries that were unknown at the time of writing the Qur'an). The history of writing in connection with the science and religion of Islam dates back to the works of Ibn Sina, Fakhr al-Razi, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, but has increased significantly in recent times. Authors in this field include Naeem Al-Mohassi, Maurice Bukay, Rafiei Mohammadi, Mostarhameh, Makarem Shirazi, and Rezaei Isfahani. These interpretations claim that some verses of the Qur'an reflect prophetic statements about the nature and structure of the universe, physics, fetal biological growth, geology, mountain structure, and other phenomena that have been later confirmed by scientific research. This group of Quran commentators presents this as proof of the divinity of the Qur'an.Ahmad Dallal, Quran and science, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an رضایی اصفهانی، محمد علی. «حركات خورشید و اعجاز علمی قرآن». دریافت‌شده در ۱۸ ژوئن ۲۰۲۰.http://jima.imana.org/article/view/8693 A Scientist's Interpretation of References to Embryology in the Qur'an

{{main article|Miracles of Muhammad}}

The Qur'an does not overtly describe Muhammad performing miracles, according to historian Denis Gril, and the supreme miracle of Muhammad is finally identified with the Qur'an itself. At least one scholar (Sunni scholar Muhammad Asad) states that Muhammad performed no miracles other than to bring the Quran to humanity,Muhammad Asad, Message of the Qur'an [Dar Al-Andalus Limited 3 Library Ramp, Gibraltar rpt. 1993] p. 427, fn. 71 and other scholars, such as Cyril Glasse and Marcia Hermansen, downplay the miracles of Muhammad, stating "they play no role in Islamic theology",{{cite book |last1=Glasse |first1=Cyril |title=The New Encyclopedia of Islam |date=2001 |publisher=Altamira |isbn=978-0-7591-0189-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newencyclopediao0000glas/page/310 310] |chapter=Miracles |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopediao0000glas/page/310 }} or "play less of an evidentiary role than in some other religions".

However, Muslim tradition (hadith) credits Muhammad with several supernatural events. For example, many Muslim commentators and some western scholars have interpreted the sura 54 (Al-Qamar){{cite quran|54|1|e=2|s=ns}} to refer to Muhammad splitting the Moon in view of the Quraysh when they had begun to persecute his followers.Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Moon This tradition has inspired many Muslim poets."Muhammad", Encyclopedia of Islam Online

• Glossary of Islam
• Index of Islam-related articles
• Challenge of the Quran
• Isra and Mi'raj
• Miracles of Jesus
• Miracles of Gautama Buddha
• Imitation and occasionalism

{{reflist}}

• Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.), Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014. {{ISBN|1-61069-177-6}}
• {{cite book |last1=Dashti |first1=`Ali |title=Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad |year=1994 |url=https://1400years.org/books/twentythreeyearsEN.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150425032900/http://www.1400years.org/books/twentythreeyearsEN.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 25, 2015 |access-date=10 April 2019 |ref=AD23Y1994 }}

• [http://www.eajaz.org/eajaz/index.php?lang=en The International Commission on Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and the Sunnah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101031084113/http://www.eajaz.org/eajaz/index.php?lang=en |date=2010-10-31 }}
• [http://www.quranandscience.com Quran and Science website]
• [http://www.islamreligion.com/category/122/ The Scientific Miracles of the Holy Quran]
• [http://kalamullah.com/miracles-of-the-quran.html The Miracles of The Qu'ran - Muhammad Mitwalli ash-Sha’rawi]
• [http://www.quran-m.com/firas/en1/ Quran Miracles Encyclopedia]
• [http://media-islam.or.id/2009/09/17/the-miracles-of-al-qur%E2%80%99an-and-modern-science The Miracles of Al Qur’an and Modern Science]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Islamic View Of Miracles}}